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Interestingly, Glenn Reid also escaped from making software (Touchtype.app, PasteUp.app, wrote "The Green Book", _PostScript Language Program Design_) to making dovetail joined furniture by hand.

That said, I've always described the "Maker" movement as "Geeks who missed shop class", and have argued that the world would be a better place if the Sloyd system of woodworking as a basic constituent of education was prevalent:

https://rainfordrestorations.com/tag/sloyd/

>Students may never pick up a tool again, but they will forever have the knowledge of how to make and evaluate things with your hand and your eye and appreciate the labor of others.



Isn't it more Geeks who enjoyed shop class, but went into software because it paid more?

(I'm the Geek who hated shop class, and thank my locking stars I can make a living writing software, decades later.)


No, given the naïveté with which "Makers" approach things, they don't seem to have had real shop-class experience, or at least not a sensible class which actually taught anything meaningful.


What?! You mean 3d printing is not always the right answer?

Shocking!


I took the Cisco networking electives, being the geek I was. I slept through 90% of it, it was such a terrible experience. Ironically, there was a very popular shop class where effectively the entire student population knew who the shop teacher was and I chose to take the networking because I didn't have any interest in shop.

Now I have a garage full of woodworking equipment (and wood), spend my leisure time watching youtube and building things.. sometimes I wonder if I would have ever made it to software professionally had I taken that shop class. Might have ended up making cabinets :D


Being reductive af and a little sardonic: I couldn’t think of a job that involved LEGO before I encountered my first programming class.




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